Student cubesat demonstrates how to use a solar sail for satellite deorbit
Using cheap off-the-shelf parts students at Brown University have successfully tested a simple solar sail in space and shown how it can be used to de-orbit satellites efficiently and inexpensively.
They built a satellite on a shoestring budget and using off-the-shelf supplies available at most hardware stores. They even sent the satellite — which is powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor popular with robot hobbyists — into space about 10 months ago, hitching a ride on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket.
…The students added a 3D-printed drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film to the bread-loaf-sized cube satellite they built. Upon deployment at about 520 kilometers — well above the orbit of the International Space Station — the sail popped open like an umbrella and is helping to push the satellite back down to Earth sooner, according to initial data. In fact, the satellite is well below the other small devices that deployed with it. In early March, for instance, the satellite was at about 470 kilometers above the Earth while the other objects were still in orbit at about 500 kilometers or more.
Based on the data, it is expected the cubesat will burn up in the atmosphere in five years, not twenty-five or so predicted for the other cubesats launched to the same orbital elevation.
This experiment above all proves that most of the very expensive demo missions to test this kind of technology have been grossly over-budget. The entire cost of this student-built project was just $10,000, and it actually was more successful in proving this technology than a number of past solar sail projects that cost millions.
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The latest US Airforce academy experiment is exactly one of those over blown overly expencive experiments.
https://sputniknews.com/20230317/spacex-launch-saw-successful-delivery-of-unique-laser-energy-experiment-to-iss-1108488189.html
Basically they are firing a laser at a solar panel to see if energy can be transferred at long distances.
They have already proven it works on the ground.
No comments on the power loss doing things this way.
Note to those reading this, the link Bob provides (from Brown University) provides several pictures of the cube sat.
It is de-orbiting sooner, which is great.
But. What is the basis for the claim that it is due to solar wind as opposed to increased atmospheric drag because of a larger surface area?
The article specifically refers to it as a “drag sail” and makes no claim of solar pressure.